“Shit,” Julian says.
I plunge my fingers in his hair, thinking I’m turning him on.
“You mind unwrapping yourself from around Mr. Ean, honey?”
I gasp and turn to look at the familiar voice. Fury is etched on his face.
“Mr. Hunt?” I squeak.
“Get down,” Julian orders.
I let every part of him go and drop to my feet. My shock is palpable. I can reach out and brush against the nefarious emotion as if it stands beside me. Julian’s face is pale. Mr. Hunt’s is red. We’re speechless for many different reasons.
“I came to check on you, Julian,” he explains. “You left in such a hurry.” He steps into his house. “You were so upset.”
“Mr. Hunt,” I begin.
He holds his hand up, cutting me off. “I knew it was true. I knew you were together. I followed you both here for weeks. But you’ve never done anything concrete that would prove you were up to anything. Now I’ve gotten my proof.”
“I quit,” Julian announces calmly.
“No!” I growl. “I dropped out.”
Mr. Hunt looks between the two of us like he doesn’t know who we are. “You’re fired, Julian. Your teaching license will be stripped. You won’t ever be able to teach again.”
I nearly break down right there. I grab Mr. Hunt’s hand. “You can’t do that to him. You can’t.”
“He broke the rules.”
“I love him,” I whisper desperately.“You can’t fire him. Please, Mr. Hunt.”
“He’s fired.” His tone is dripping with his anger. He points at Julian like he’s a child. “How could you do that to me? How could you risk your career over this?”
His words kill me … because he’s right.
“She’s worth my career,” Julian easily defends me, as if he’s talking about something that makes perfect sense to him. “If you want to fire me, fine. I’m not giving her up for anything.”
“Julian!” I smack his arm. “This is your future we’re talking about. What are you going to do for the rest of your life?”
His eyes are sad. “What are we going to do?”
“Of course, it’s we.” I wish Mr. Hunt would leave so we can talk in private. As it is, he won’t leave. He’s staring at the both of us like we’ve lost our minds. “Of course, when I think of later you’re there. I wish for it because of you.”
Julian looks away.
Mr. Hunt clears his throat. “Look, Kaelyn. I know you’ve been through some pretty tough experiences and you’ve had no support. But are you sure you want to risk yourself this way? Are you sure you love him, or is he manipulating you into thinking you do?”
That’s the point where Mr. Hunt loses me. Julian is the only part of my life that is good. He is the reason I stand here.
“I’ve never manipulated her. Are you kidding me?” Julian looks outraged. “Listen, Hunt. She’s eighteen. I love her. There’s nothing you can do about it. Fire me. Hang me up to dry. Take my career. Take everything I have. I’m not giving her up for a paycheck.”
I walk over and take Julian’s hand. For the first time in my life, I have someone who’s willing to fight with me. “If you cared even a second about the tough experiences I’ve been through, you won’t punish him. It’s because of him I even got through that. Don’t forget you let it happen. For years,” I tack on because I can.
“What kind of leader am I if I let this pass?” Mr. Hunt pleads.
He wants to let it pass. He’s known about us for weeks but hasn’t said anything. Could he understand what Julian means to me? “Please, Mr. Hunt. Don’t hurt him. I’ll drop out.”
“And I’ll quit. If I quit we’re not breaking any rules. You won’t have to know what’s going on because neither of us will be at school. We can do this quietly.”
“I’m supposed to be a responsible leader!” Mr. Hunt reaches over and slams Julian’s door shut. He starts pacing the halls. “I’ve been driving myself crazy about this for weeks. Should I? Shouldn’t I? What kind of person am I if I don’t say anything?” He looks at me. “But what kind of person would I be if I did?”
“The last thing Kaelyn needs is judgment.”
“Then you should have thought about that before you slept with a student!” Mr. Hunt roars.
I flinch and drop Julian’s hand to hug myself.
“I can’t help who I love.” Julian looks helpless. I can’t stand it when he’s helpless. “I can’t help who I fall for.”
“Think about the media shit storm this is going to cause me.” Mr. Hunt looks furious all over again. “The reporters, the demands for your head. Your entire family is going to get drug in the mud.”
I feel the blood drain from my face. Julian’s been pale since he opened the door. But he still manages to lose the rest of his color.
I don’t know what to say. I’ve understood the threat from the beginning. I feared it, and though I hadn’t forgotten, I’d pretended I had. I picture Julian’s face on the evening news, accused of doing unspeakable things I know he didn’t do. I start to hyperventilate. Julian grabs for me, but I push him away. I can’t breathe.
“Kaelyn,” Mr. Hunt says. “You have to understand what this means for him.”
“Stop scaring her. Kael, calm down. It hasn’t happened yet.”
“He’s so good,” I whisper. “He doesn’t deserve that.” Tears fill my eyes and spill over. I point accusingly at Julian. “You knew this was going to happen.”
“It was a possibility. We both knew that.”
“Why would you risk all of that for me?”
“Because. You’re worth it. I’d take it all if it meant I could have you.”
His words make me cry harder. I keep seeing a family watching the news thinking Julian is a monster for loving me. For saving me.
“Calm down, honey.” Mr. Hunt pats my back awkwardly. “Why don’t we sit down and talk about this?”
“Let’s go in the kitchen. You want a beer, Hunt?”
“Please.”
Julian grabs my shoulder tops and leads me into the kitchen. As he does he kisses below my ear. “Don’t worry,” he promises.
How can I not worry? How can I not when everything I love is going to get destroyed for loving me back?
Julian hands Mr. Hunt a bottle of beer and opens one for himself. They both sit at the table while I pace in the kitchen.
Mr. Hunt runs a hand through his hair, watching me disconcertingly. “If it weren’t for Kaelyn I’d have sold your ass to the wolves already.”
“Fair enough.” Julian takes a long hectic drink of his beer. “Why don’t you continue thinking about her?”
“And what about you?”
“I lost my job today.”
“And you’re moving clear across the country,” Mr. Hunt says, strangely serious.
“And I’m moving clear across the country,” Julian agrees.
I stop pacing and stare. What are they doing?
“You quit because you got another teaching job.”
“I quit because I got another teaching job,” Julian agrees.
“The rumors about you two were just rumors. I looked into it respectfully and found nothing to validate the accusations.”
“They were just rumors.”
“Kaelyn’s going to graduate and I want a mailed copy of her diploma.”
Julian nods slowly. “Consider it done.”
“I never came here.”
“Of course you haven’t.”
Mr. Hunt finishes his beer. “I’ll have your office packed up and instate the current substitute as the new teacher. Once you’re gone, I’ll mail everything to your new address. You’re gone by the end of the week. Don’t answer anyone’s questions unless you absolutely have to.”
“I already have a place in mind.”
Mr. Hunt turns his serious gaze on me. “I want to know which colleges you’re applying to and I’ll write you a recommendation letter for each one. You are not to let this
get in your way.”
I nod silently.
“You moved to get a fresh start.”
“I moved to get a fresh start.”
“I’ll mail your transcripts along with Julian’s stuff.”
“Got it.”
“Don’t tell anyone where you’re going. Just go.”
“Just go.”
“And please, please, don’t make me regret this. My ass is on the line just as much Julian’s now. I’m only doing this because I let you down. I let those girls attack you and it’s because of me you had detention. Otherwise, I’d nail his ass to the wall.”
Tears cloud my eyes. I walk over to him as he rises from the table. I wrap my arms around him and he hugs me. “Thank you, Mr. Hunt.”
He looks over at Julian. “Take care of her.”
“I plan to.” Julian extends his hand.
Mr. Hunt shakes it firmly, eyes eerily serious. “The sooner you’re gone the better I’ll feel.”
Julian smiles tiredly. “Tell me how you really feel.”
Mr. Hunt doesn’t react. “I did.”
He leaves all on his own. When the front door closes after him, Julian and I stare at each other, at a loss for words. Did that actually happen?
“Come here.” His arms open for me.
I run into them. “You know I meant we right? There is no me without you. There never was.”
“I know. I know, baby.” His holds my head to his chest.
“We should leave right now before he changes his mind.” I squeeze him as hard as I can. I can’t stop shaking. “Did he just do that?”
“I think he did.” Julian laughs in disbelief. “That was close.”
I pull back and smack his chest. “We almost lost everything. You didn’t tell me you’d lose your teaching license.”
“Would you have been able to resist me still?” He smiles crookedly.
“I’m not kidding.” Try as I may to not smile, I fail. “Mr. Hunt did us a major favor.”
“He did you a major favor. If it weren’t for you I’d be on the news right now.” His face pales again. It shows me how much he pushed the truth aside for me, the way I did for him.
I keep waiting for Mr. Hunt to come back and change his mind. Haha, he’ll say, your lives are over. Julian won’t be able to teach ever again. And I will forever be responsible for ruining his career, for taking something he loves to do. For doing what I always do. I disengage from Julian’s grasp and brace my hands against my knees, breathing in deeply so I don’t pass out. The possibilities of what could have happened are taunting me. It was like dodging a bullet only to get hit by another worse one. There was another bullet out there.
“What do we do?” I ask.
“Exactly what he told us to do. We leave.”
“Where will we go?”
“Let me worry about that.”
I don’t know what to do with myself. I think he can tell. He walks toward me and grabs my hand, pulling me over to the table. He urges me down into a chair. As he stands there he stares down at me. His gray eyes are full of the past twenty-four hours.
“First thing we do is eat something. After that, I’ll make some phone calls. Everything’s going to be all right, Kael.”
I try and hear his words as he wants me to hear them. They’re supposed to comfort me. Of course, on some level they do because they’re coming from him. But on another level, one I don’t think even I have control over, they do the opposite.
I tap my fingers against the table and replay Mr. Hunt’s words in my brain as Julian moves around the kitchen. The smell of cooking meat and coffee begin to filter through my panic.
The fact that Mr. Hunt cared enough to put his neck on the line and risk his career for me was unnerving. There was so much gratitude and confusion. I tap my fingers faster, trying to decipher his actions. Maybe if I understand them better, I can accept them.
Instead of fear them.
A plate of food appears in front of me. Julian sits down and pours sugar and cream into my coffee. I don’t move. He sighs and begins eating his own food.
“I don’t know about you, but I want out of Savannah. I want away from the people who have hurt you and who might hurt you again. I’m ready to move on with you. Plus, this is the only way we can keep what we have. The alternative was never an option. It was a fear.”
“I’m ready to move on with you too,” I promise. I grab my fork and poke at my waffle. “I can’t figure out why he did it for me.”
He smiles a little and shakes his head. “You still don’t get it, do you? He did it because he cares about you. I know, I know,” he says, tone dry. “How impossible is that?” He gives me a look when I nod. “I wasn’t saying that so you’d agree. I was saying it so you’d realize that it’s not hard to care about you. It’s actually really easy. It’s easy to fall for you when you open your eyes.”
In the past month, I’d grown used to Julian’s warmth and words. In truth, I lived for them. But that didn’t mean I found a way to react without him knowing it. I look down at my breakfast as heat fills my cheeks. “You should probably get your eyes checked.”
“I love you, Kael. When are you going to accept there’s so much about you to love?”
I blow my breath out and tear my gaze from his. “Thank you for breakfast.”
His expression tightens. “I have forever to prove it to you.”
Despite everything, his words make me smile at my waffle. “Never give up on me, please?”
“Never,” he promises forcefully. He grabs the side of my chair and pulls it over to him so that my legs rest between his. “I plan on proving how much you mean to me for the rest of our lives. And you’re going to let me. No matter how hard I try, no matter what I do, no matter how many times I fail or succeed, you’re going to know exactly how much you mean to me.”
“This isn’t about me right now. This is about us. What are we going to do?” I look down.
He gently grasps my chin and lifts it so our eyes connect. “It’s always been about you for me. From the moment I met you, it’s always been about you, Kael.”
I move to sit on his lap and wrap my arms around his shoulders. “How’s that working out for you?”
His lips kiss the corner of my mouth, teasing me. The entire time he holds my gaze, daring me to look away. I know what he’s doing. He wants me to focus on something else other than the threat we just dodged. If there was anything I loved to focus on it was him.
“Perfectly,” he promises me. “Do you trust me?”
I nod. Trust and Julian were the only two things that made sense.
“Whatever we decide we’ll do it together. Everything I do is for us. It’s for our future. You want a future with me, don’t you, baby?”
Again, I nod, unable to speak with his lips this close.
“We’re going to take this chance Hunt gave us and not think too hard about what could have happened.” When he finishes, he kisses my bottom lip softly, gently tasting it. “Because it didn’t happen. Think about what this means for us. We can be together now. We have no ties in Savannah anymore. No more hiding. No more secrets. We can go anywhere and be exactly who we wanted from the beginning.”
“What did you want to be?” I touch his face and lean closer to him, hypnotized.
“Yours.”
I close my eyes and find his lips. This is where I want to be. No matter where we go, or where we end up, as long as Julian’s there I’m everything I always wanted but didn’t think I could be. I’m safe, loved, and wanted.
And really, what else matters?
What else do I need?
Chapter Fifteen
A loud chime jolts me awake.
Our clothes are on the floor and our naked bodies are wrapped securely around each other. He groans in my ear and reaches down for where his cellphone sits on the floor charging.
When he brings the phone closer to his eyes to get a look at the caller ID, I get a look at the screen also. MOM,
it reads, and there’s a picture of a beautiful smiling blonde.
“Right on time.” He puts it on speaker and answers it a second later. “Morning, Mom.”
“Julian, son,” comes a soft feminine voice. “I give up.”
I can’t see his smile, but I hear it when he answers. “On what, Mom?” His voice is groggy and full of sleep.
I snuggle closer to him, unable to stop staring at the phone. Though Julian explains he’s close with his parents he hasn’t spoken to them. I assume I’ve been too much of a handful for him to focus on much else.
“Have you lost your internet service?”
“No …”
“Interesting. Have you given up on your cellphone provider?”
Julian sets his phone down on the mattress so the speaker can pick up his voice. “What are you getting at?”
“I was getting at the fact that it’s been almost two months since we’ve spoken. I was worried you’d given up modern technology in exchange for you know, nothing. And then I get a weird email last night asking if you can stay in our summer place in Monterey. It just seems odd. What’s going on?”
I roll over and look at him. “What?” I whisper.
He looks extremely guilty, but at least he still has the gall to meet my eyes. He nuzzles my neck but I wiggle out from under him. Sighing, he addresses his mother. “I need to get away from Savannah for a while. That’s all.”
“Is it Layla?”
“Not quite.”
“Is she coming too?” She doesn’t sound happy at the prospect.
I smirk. His mother and I already agree on one thing.
Julian glares at me. “No. Look, Mom. Can we talk when I get down there? All I wanted was to know if the summer home was open. I’ll pay monthly if you want me too.”
“First of all, you could never afford it with your teaching salary. Second, no. It isn’t open. Your cousin Henley has been living in it for the past year. You’d know that if you called home. And lastly, why isn’t she coming?”
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